Course: English 415: Seminar: The Gothic
Faculty: Lynette Carpenter
The purpose of this project is to add an information literacy component to a senior seminar on Gothic literature. In the process, I assume that I will become more aware of possibilities for incorporating an information literacy component into other courses I teach.
Project Description
Students in the senior seminar are typically upper-level English majors. In the past, I have tended to assume that they already had many of the skills needed to complete a senior-level seminar project. Librarian Danielle Clarke informs me that my assumption is probably not valid, and indeed, it has not proven to be foolproof in the past. Moreover, I acknowledge that advances in information retrieval, processing, and presentation are accelerating, and that I ought to ensure that upper-level students master the latest skills before they graduate.
For the purposes of this project, four class sessions with librarians will prepare students for at least three assignments.
First session: The librarian will present a workshop on the assessment of Web resources, and may introduce specialized Web resources such as online manuscripts. Outcome: Students will be asked to write a comparative evaluation of two or three Web sites with similar content or goals. These evaluations will be posted on the class Web site.
Second session: The librarian will present a workshop on online library resources (databases, E-books, online catalogs for other libraries). Outcome: Students will choose a scholarly article available through an online database and write a summary and evaluation of the article.
Third session: The audio-visual services librarian will provide a training session on Power Point. Outcome: Students will make a brief in-class presentation about the article they have evaluated. They will also incorporate Power Point into presentations of their final research projects.
Fourth session: The librarian will make a presentation on annotated bibliographies. Outcome: Students will compile an annotated bibliography on the subject of their final research projects.
In addition to the above activities, I will invest some time this summer learning Power Point and designing a course Web site. I have never used Power Point, though I am interested in learning it, and would hesitate to assign a Power Point project to my students unless I were more than minimally competent in the program. I understand that the Audio-Visual Services librarian will train me. He can then provide the initial training for the students as well, and provide me with a model for training other classes, since I suspect that over the long run, individual class sessions in Power Point do not constitute the best use of his time. Last fall I designed my first course Web site, which is not bad for a first attempt but does not offer opportunities for students to share information.